BRIAN FLYNN today heralds a new dawn for Welsh football and expect him to look forward rather than back.

Much has been made of the glut of retirees who packed it in under John Toshack and whether they will return with Flynn in charge of the next two Euro 2012 qualifiers against Bulgaria and Switzerland.

Let’s bring back Robbie Savage, some people who should know better are trumpeting, as if a bloke who is 36 years of age in a few days and who has been playing in a struggling Championship team is the answer to our problems.

Remind me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Savage an integral part of the ageing Wales team left behind by Mark Hughes which had gone two years without a competitive win?

Fortunately, Flynn is far too sensible to be caught up in the absurd hype. If anything, I anticipate the first squad he announces at lunchtime to be younger, rather than older than the teams even Toshack put together.

There was a strong case to be made for bringing back Ryan Giggs, given the form, ability and stature of the man, but he’s got a hamstring problem anyway.

Simon Davies I can also see an argument for, but when did he last play well for Wales? The Fulham man’s international days are over, just like Savage’s, and Flynn knows we have to move forward.

I suspect the caretaker manager’s one exception to the rule, with regards the older brigade, will be to recall Danny Collins.

The Stoke defender fell out with Toshack, but will come in from the cold because Flynn believes he can genuinely do a decent job at the back against Bulgaria and the Swiss.

The jury is still out on Collins for me because, in a 1-0 friendly defeat against Cyprus, he produced the second worst individual performance I have seen from anyone wearing the red of Wales in recent times.

The only one who eclipsed Collins, in my view, was Richard Duffy, who had an absolute shocker when Wales were battered 5-1 at home by Slovakia.

We’ve not seen hide nor hair of Duffy since. Collins, to be fair, has got his head down, become a regular in the Premier League and, given our dearth of resources, deserves his Wales opportunity again.

As for others who packed it in during the Toshack years, well no-one can convince me the likes of Paul Parry, Carl Robinson, Carl Fletcher, Andy Johnson, Danny Coyne, Mark Crossley, Darren Ward and others can improve the Welsh team one iota.

Fortunately, Flynn is shrewd enough to cut the wheat from the chaff, separate naivety from reality, and that will be reflected in his squad.

However, there WILL be one member of the old guard missing who, in the eyes of the majority of the Welsh public, should definitely be there.

Craig Bellamy has already been ruled out by Flynn because Cardiff City boss Dave Jones has kicked up a fuss about the knee problem which has forced his skipper to miss every Bluebirds match in September.

Yet Jones, as we go to print, refuses to rule Bellamy out of tomorrow’s Championship clash with Barnsley and if he does feature it will open up a right old club versus country can of worms.

How can Bellamy be deemed fit enough to play in a bread and butter league match, but not for his country in two absolute must-win Euro qualifiers?

Although it seems simplistic on the surface, the issue is of course more complicated than that given that Bellamy can’t be expected to play too many matches in such a short space of time.

During the month of October alone, Wales face the Bulgarians and Swiss, while Cardiff meet Barnsley, Bristol City, Coventry, Leeds and Norwich.

Bellamy’s knees won’t stand up to the rigours of that little lot and for him it’s the chicken and the egg.

The Bluebirds desperately need Bellamy back to fire them, something that has become patently obvious given their lack of punch, creativity and even leadership during a less-than-impressive five-match run of results.

But Wales also desperately need their No1 player and, rightly or wrongly, I question whether Toshack would have succumbed quite as readily to Jones’ wishes to leave out Bellamy.

The minimum Toshack would have demanded was Bellamy turning up in the Welsh camp on Monday morning to be assessed by the FAW medics.

He may have been deemed fit enough to play against Bulgaria at least, if not the Swiss in Basle four days on.

But playing for Wales would run the risk of Bellamy aggravating the knee again and missing out on another sequence of Bluebirds games, thus affecting their push for promotion.

No-one, and I do mean NO-ONE, should question Bellamy’s passion and desire to play for his country.

He has been in this situation many, many times before and always insisted upon being with Wales, much to the chagrin of various club bosses.

But how does he call this one? Cardiff’s Premier League dream versus Wales’ Euro 2012 fantasy... which does he deem the more important?

Were Cardiff to continue to slip up during the month of October, they would still have six months to mount a proper promotion challenge.

If Wales get it wrong under Flynn in these next two games, we can forget about our Euro hopes. And for Bellamy, 31, that might spell the end of his ambition to play for his country in a major finals.

Quite a dilemma, isn’t it?

In this case, the matter has been taken out of Bellamy’s hands with Flynn making the decision for him as a result of a conversation he had with Jones about the matter.

Even if Bellamy features for Cardiff at Barnsley, it won’t affect Flynn’s mindset.

Yet I can’t help but notice the situation being reported about England – our Group G Euro foes, remember – over the fitness of Wayne Rooney.

Bellamy is Wales’ version of Rooney, our best player, and thus a direct analogy can be drawn.

Sir Alex Ferguson has stated that Rooney will be out of action for three weeks because he needs to rest an ankle problem and also come to terms with well-documented, off-the-field matters.

Okay Rooney, unlike Bellamy, has not been out of action for an entire month, but he did miss the Uefa Champions League game in Valencia and is absent from tomorrow’s Premier League game with Sunderland.

Ferguson’s three-week time scale should coincide with Manchester United’s first game back after the international break against Sunderland, just as I realistically anticipate Bellamy returning for Cardiff’s game with Bristol City on that date.

However, despite the concerns of Fergie and United, England are refusing to give up on Rooney.

Fabio Capello is considering picking his star striker when he announces his squad on Monday for the game against Montenegro, which should make his next telephone conversation with Ferguson very interesting indeed.

The England medical staff, we’re told, are in “day-to-day” contact with the United doctors to assess the condition of Rooney’s ankle.

Capello’s usual policy is to call up players who have short-term injuries for assessment by his own medical staff, rather than rely on the diagnosis of club doctors, and it looks like he will follow that format this time, too.

If England are doing that with Rooney, should Wales not be considering it with Bellamy?

Or is it the age-old thing that they are bigger than us and Welsh international football doesn’t matter?

I certainly don’t view it that way. I happen to believe Flynn has got it absolutely spot on by ignoring the clamour for Savage and co against Bulgaria.

But I also wish Bellamy was playing. Why? Because we would have a much better chance of beating Bulgaria with him and pushing our qualifying hopes.